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We demonstrate a practical scalable approach to the fabrication of tunable metamaterials. Designed for THz wavelengths, the metamaterial is comprised of polyurethane filled with an array of indium wires using the well-established fiber…

Traditional robotic mechanisms contain a series of rigid links connected by rotational joints that provide powered motion, all of which is controlled by a central processor. By contrast, analogous mechanisms found in nature, such as octopus…

Mechanical metamaterials are renowned for their ability to achieve high stiffness and strength at low densities, often at the expense of low ductility and stretchability-a persistent trade-off in materials. In contrast, materials such as…

Metamaterials present the possibility of artificially generating advanced functionalities through engineering of their internal structure. Artificial spin networks, in which a large number of nanoscale magnetic elements are coupled…

Naturally occurring materials are often disordered, with their bulk properties being challenging to predict from the structure, due to the lack of underlying crystalline axes. In this paper, we develop a digital pipeline from…

Knitted fabrics are metamaterials with remarkable mechanical properties, such as extreme deformability and multiple history-dependent rest shapes. This letter shows that those properties may stem from a continuous set of metastable states…

Metamaterials can be engineered with tunable bandgaps to adapt to dynamic and complex environments, particularly for controlling elastic waves and vibration. However, achieving wide-range, seamless, reversible, in-situ and robust tunability…

Soft robots are known for their ability to perform tasks with great adaptability, enabled by their distributed, non-uniform stiffness and actuation. Bending is the most fundamental motion for soft robot design, but creating robust, and…

An innovative special class of tunable periodic metamaterials is designed, suitable for realising high-performance acoustic filters. The metamaterial is made up of a phononic crystal coupled to local resonators. Such local resonators…

To enable new nonlinear responses, metamaterials are created by organizing structural units (meta-atoms) which are typically on the scale of about a hundred nanometers. However, truly altering atomic symmetry and enabling new nonlinear…

Mechanism - collections of rigid elements coupled by perfect hinges which exhibit a zero-energy motion -- motivate the design of a variety of mechanical metamaterials. We significantly enlarge this design space by considering…

Functional magnetic composites capable of large deformation, load bearing, and multifunctional motion are essential for next-generation adaptive soft robots. Here, we present muscle-inspired magnetic actuators (MMA), additively manufactured…

An efficient reflective elastic metasurface with tunable focusing point is proposed. The metasurface is based on electric resonators embedded in a stretchable elastic substrate. The focal length is controlled by mean of the stretching…

We develop a framework to understand the mechanics of metamaterial sheets on curved surfaces. Here we have constructed a continuum elastic theory of mechanical metamaterials by introducing an auxiliary, scalar gauge-like field that absorbs…

Robots built from soft materials can alter their shape and size in a particular profile. This shape-changing ability could be extremely helpful for rescue robots and those operating in unknown terrains and environments. In changing shape,…

Metadamping is the phenomenon of either enhanced or diminished intrinsic dissipation in a material stemming from the material's internal structural dynamics. It has been previously shown that a locally resonant elastic metamaterial may be…

Topological states can be used to control the mechanical properties of a material along an edge or around a localized defect. The surface rigidity of elastic networks is characterized by a bulk topological invariant called the polarization;…

Natural systems, such as tendons and spider silk, demonstrate how the combination of strength and stretchability can be effectively achieved by integrating stiff and flexible network structures. Inspired by these systems, we developed a…

A concept of a planar modular mechanical metamaterial inspired by the nature's principle of local adaptivity is proposed. The metamaterial consists of identical pieces similar to jigsaw puzzle tiles. Their rotation within assembly provides…

Flexible mechanical metamaterials are compliant structures engineered to achieve unique properties via the large deformation of their components. While their static character has been studied extensively, the study of their dynamic…